lol, buddy, good luck finding the Lincoln tunnel
February 17, 2022 3:56 PM Subscribe
I had never heard the details but had guessed there was some order to it, and now I know! That was delightful and educational!
It also mentioned Sweet Grass, Montana as the end of the I-15, which lead me down a rabbit hole when I looked it up. Who knew there are six airports that straddle the US and Canadian border? Like where the runway is the border in several instances!
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:18 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
It also mentioned Sweet Grass, Montana as the end of the I-15, which lead me down a rabbit hole when I looked it up. Who knew there are six airports that straddle the US and Canadian border? Like where the runway is the border in several instances!
posted by inflatablekiwi at 4:18 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
The house I grew up in faced I90. We just called it the thruway. It was in a suburb of Buffalo called Cheektowaga... In my teenage dreams I Imagined L i z Taylor's car breaking down in midwinter...I90 flares off to NYC minutes from my house...and she would find her way to my house asking for help.We offered her tea and biscuits. She thanked us profusely and offered me a job as her assistant in L.A.
posted by Czjewel at 4:30 PM on February 17, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by Czjewel at 4:30 PM on February 17, 2022 [10 favorites]
Glorious.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:37 PM on February 17, 2022
posted by ricochet biscuit at 4:37 PM on February 17, 2022
My kind of nerdery. Surprised he didn't mention that the I-76's and I-84's were I-80S and I-80N respectively before they were renumbered. Or that the "Alaskan Interstates" aren't signed, nor are they built anywhere near Interstate specification. They just got designated as such in a highway bill. And where's making fun of the tiny pieces that make up I-73?
posted by Mister Fabulous at 4:48 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Mister Fabulous at 4:48 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
The I-35W and I-35E split in the Twin Cities has always amused me. I've always assumed assigning one of the cities a loop and the other the main highway was too politically fraught.
posted by mollweide at 4:53 PM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by mollweide at 4:53 PM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
When I lived in Houston, I had a couple friends. To visit one, I'd drive about a quarter mile from my house, get on I-10 West, take the third exit, go left under the freeway and drive about a quarter mile to his house. To visit my other friend, I'd drive about a quarter mile from my house, get on I-10 West, drive for about 23 hours, take an exit in Pomona just outside LA, go left under the freeway and drive about a quarter mile to her house. Ah, Interstates.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 4:58 PM on February 17, 2022 [16 favorites]
posted by lefty lucky cat at 4:58 PM on February 17, 2022 [16 favorites]
CGPG is always pretty good. I usually want to post their things. I also though most of this was common knowledge but that might be like rotary phones. I amused myself on the interstates by checking time and mile markers and speedometer to get to the will I make it tome for my TV show.
But I don't think I ever hit on the larger system beyond N/S, E/W, bypass sort of thing. That's what maps are for, remember those? Of course not.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:59 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
But I don't think I ever hit on the larger system beyond N/S, E/W, bypass sort of thing. That's what maps are for, remember those? Of course not.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:59 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
A lot of interstate number protocol info used to be printed on maps my family used as a kid - knowing my family, I'd guess those were AAA maps.
posted by LionIndex at 5:03 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by LionIndex at 5:03 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
I honestly thought this was common knowledge
Yeah I wonder. Maybe it means we are old? I knew most of this but enjoyed learning about the 495 (comes back) and 195 (does not) thing which somehow my "OK WHICH WAY ARE WE POINTING" navigational dad did not impress upon me. That said, my god the number of exceptions kind of reminds me why I didn't learn some of this stuff better the first time. I live on Vermont Route 12, and have always lived on it since 2001. However, when I lived on it in the next town, it was on a weird bend part of it that went the opposite direction from how the sign says. So you'd be on Route 12 South but then it would make a 180 and you'd be on Route 12 South heading North which was very confusing. I'm a person who uses a GPS unit in the car and not my phone for Vermont-y cell signal reasons but it's been interesting over time to see how the way the GPS does things and the way the phone directions do things are diverging.
posted by jessamyn at 5:06 PM on February 17, 2022 [8 favorites]
Yeah I wonder. Maybe it means we are old? I knew most of this but enjoyed learning about the 495 (comes back) and 195 (does not) thing which somehow my "OK WHICH WAY ARE WE POINTING" navigational dad did not impress upon me. That said, my god the number of exceptions kind of reminds me why I didn't learn some of this stuff better the first time. I live on Vermont Route 12, and have always lived on it since 2001. However, when I lived on it in the next town, it was on a weird bend part of it that went the opposite direction from how the sign says. So you'd be on Route 12 South but then it would make a 180 and you'd be on Route 12 South heading North which was very confusing. I'm a person who uses a GPS unit in the car and not my phone for Vermont-y cell signal reasons but it's been interesting over time to see how the way the GPS does things and the way the phone directions do things are diverging.
posted by jessamyn at 5:06 PM on February 17, 2022 [8 favorites]
I honestly thought this was common knowledge
I always knew there was some scheme to it, I think I remember the zero = E/W, five = N/S thing and a couple other rules from reading the intro pages in the Rand McNalley road atlas everyone had in their car in the 1970s. I didn't know it to the detail given in the video though, which is why I posted it. I thought it was a really well done video.
We all would sit in the car in the driveway as kids and read the road atlas, maps and street guide, right? Just me? Ok.
So you'd be on Route 12 South but then it would make a 180 and you'd be on Route 12 South heading North which was very confusing.
It's like that section of 95 down around Norwood, MA where you're going 95 South and then you're going the same direction but you're on 93 North. I get why it works that way but it can be very confusing.
posted by bondcliff at 5:18 PM on February 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
I always knew there was some scheme to it, I think I remember the zero = E/W, five = N/S thing and a couple other rules from reading the intro pages in the Rand McNalley road atlas everyone had in their car in the 1970s. I didn't know it to the detail given in the video though, which is why I posted it. I thought it was a really well done video.
We all would sit in the car in the driveway as kids and read the road atlas, maps and street guide, right? Just me? Ok.
So you'd be on Route 12 South but then it would make a 180 and you'd be on Route 12 South heading North which was very confusing.
It's like that section of 95 down around Norwood, MA where you're going 95 South and then you're going the same direction but you're on 93 North. I get why it works that way but it can be very confusing.
posted by bondcliff at 5:18 PM on February 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
@bondcliff, there is also part of 95 where you are going 95 north but Rte 128 south - or perhaps the other way around!
posted by scolbath at 5:19 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by scolbath at 5:19 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
there is also part of 95 where you are going 95 north but Rte 128 south
That has always made me totally bonkers! I'm not great with Left/Right and East/West but I am very good at maps and every so often I'll see something like that on a sign and just go o_O
posted by jessamyn at 5:28 PM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
That has always made me totally bonkers! I'm not great with Left/Right and East/West but I am very good at maps and every so often I'll see something like that on a sign and just go o_O
posted by jessamyn at 5:28 PM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
I refer to those types of sections as 'I-95 North (Eventually, Don't Worry About It Right Now)'.
Sorta like seeing Interstate Highway signs on the island of Hawaii. What, is there, a tunnel, Har har?
posted by bartleby at 5:36 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
Sorta like seeing Interstate Highway signs on the island of Hawaii. What, is there, a tunnel, Har har?
posted by bartleby at 5:36 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
Before 128 was truncated to I-95 in Canton, the stretch from there going to Braintree was signed as 128 South, I-93 North, and U.S. 1 North and you were heading almost due east geographically.
Going in the opposite direction from Canton to Dedham it's still signed as I-95 North, 128 North, U.S. 1 South.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:37 PM on February 17, 2022 [8 favorites]
Going in the opposite direction from Canton to Dedham it's still signed as I-95 North, 128 North, U.S. 1 South.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:37 PM on February 17, 2022 [8 favorites]
I-95 is also somewhat backwards in the Bronx: the Cross Bronx is 95 for a bit, but the part going northwest is 95 South, and the part going southeast is 95 North. Or the other way around. I can never remember and try to avoid it 100% of the time anyway.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:38 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by uncleozzy at 5:38 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
People talk about the dangers of texting and driving, but have no idea about fumbling your way around DC or LA with a spiral bound Thomas Guide on your lap.
posted by bartleby at 5:40 PM on February 17, 2022 [22 favorites]
posted by bartleby at 5:40 PM on February 17, 2022 [22 favorites]
There was that period of janky windshield HUDs which followed the creation of MapQuest and lasted until in-car GPS units proliferated.
Just print out a map and put the sheet of paper on the dashboard! It worked great--except at night.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:50 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
Just print out a map and put the sheet of paper on the dashboard! It worked great--except at night.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:50 PM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
Great video. This kind of nerdery is just for me. They mention I-69 and how has splits in Texas. I-69's northern terminus is in my home state of Michigan (Port Huron, to be exact), and is an east-west highway until Lansing where it turns more or less south-ish. At one time it ended in Indianapolis but has been extended into Kentucky (much of it is still under construction. IIRC, this highway was intended to facilitate international shipping across the U. S. from Canada (where it starts) to Mexico (where parts of it exist), and there was even talk of having it be double-decker or something with one level strictly for truck traffic. NAFTA Superhighway or something like that. I don't believe there's a continuous I-69 in place yet though other roads have been re-placarded to I-69. Kind of highway hijacking, I guess. Anyway, great video. I recommend every highway nerd like me to read The Big Roads by Earl Swift. 10-4, good buddy.
posted by charris5005 at 6:01 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by charris5005 at 6:01 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
For anyone looking to further explore (prompted by my own fall into the rabbit hole), when two roads overlap but have opposite signage (e.g., I-77 N / I-81S in WV), the term is "wrong-way concurrency"
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:01 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by miguelcervantes at 6:01 PM on February 17, 2022 [4 favorites]
The I-35W and I-35E split in the Twin Cities has always amused me.
It does it again in Dallas-Fort Worth! Why? Mystery!
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:27 PM on February 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
It does it again in Dallas-Fort Worth! Why? Mystery!
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:27 PM on February 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
They mention I-69 and how has splits in Texas. I-69's northern terminus is in my home state of Michigan (Port Huron, to be exact), and is an east-west highway until Lansing where it turns more or less south-ish.
and right around lansing I-69 intersects with I-96 - the only interstate intersection where the numbers mirror one another
posted by pyramid termite at 6:47 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
and right around lansing I-69 intersects with I-96 - the only interstate intersection where the numbers mirror one another
posted by pyramid termite at 6:47 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
I must have picked up on the taxonomy from reading Rand McNally atlases in the car as a kid, now that I see some of the comments here. The deviations that occur for potentially political reasons just go to show that no abstract system can fully survived contact with the real world.
The discrepancy between traveling in a particular direction and having the road designated as going in a different direction has always made sense to me in a weird sort of topological way, which I guess explains why I like GIS.
Before a redesignation a few years ago, you could drive down US-1 S (which is really heading southwest) between Princeton and Trenton in New Jersey and encounter a sign about an upcoming interchange. The sign indicated that you could take one exit at the interchange to go onto I-295 S towards Philadelphia. If you took the other exit, you would precede on I-95 S toward Philadelphia. Each exit obviously went in opposite directions. I always just sighed and expected many confused changes of lanes to happen on that stretch.
posted by mollweide at 6:50 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
The discrepancy between traveling in a particular direction and having the road designated as going in a different direction has always made sense to me in a weird sort of topological way, which I guess explains why I like GIS.
Before a redesignation a few years ago, you could drive down US-1 S (which is really heading southwest) between Princeton and Trenton in New Jersey and encounter a sign about an upcoming interchange. The sign indicated that you could take one exit at the interchange to go onto I-295 S towards Philadelphia. If you took the other exit, you would precede on I-95 S toward Philadelphia. Each exit obviously went in opposite directions. I always just sighed and expected many confused changes of lanes to happen on that stretch.
posted by mollweide at 6:50 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
In Canada we avoid all these complications by only having one highway.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 6:51 PM on February 17, 2022 [25 favorites]
posted by Gerald Bostock at 6:51 PM on February 17, 2022 [25 favorites]
Lots of interesting stuff here.
But...
As a professional editor (of words) I'm irrationally annoyed by his use of "northernest", "southernest", "northerner", and "southerner", when he should have used "northernmost", "southernmost", "more northern", and "more southern".
And as someone who grew up in Miami, I'm irrationally annoyed that he prounounced "Hialeah" as "High-LAY-ah", rather than "HIGH-ah-LEE-ah".
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:11 PM on February 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
But...
As a professional editor (of words) I'm irrationally annoyed by his use of "northernest", "southernest", "northerner", and "southerner", when he should have used "northernmost", "southernmost", "more northern", and "more southern".
And as someone who grew up in Miami, I'm irrationally annoyed that he prounounced "Hialeah" as "High-LAY-ah", rather than "HIGH-ah-LEE-ah".
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 7:11 PM on February 17, 2022 [9 favorites]
RonButNotStupid - That gave me a nostalgic feeling for the 'map light'. Is there still such a thing these days?
'Very Satisfying' - I couldn't agree more.
This is my jam.
posted by MtDewd at 7:25 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
'Very Satisfying' - I couldn't agree more.
This is my jam.
posted by MtDewd at 7:25 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
Just watched it again. I am on team East Cost for I-76,84,86,87.
My I-495 preference is DC beltway.
Have to go now and look up I-99
posted by MtDewd at 7:40 PM on February 17, 2022
My I-495 preference is DC beltway.
Have to go now and look up I-99
posted by MtDewd at 7:40 PM on February 17, 2022
GenjiandProust:
Pretty sure this was something to do with preparing their dastardly plot to steal the North Stars.
Bastards...
posted by wenestvedt at 7:58 PM on February 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
The I-35W and I-35E split in the Twin Cities has always amused meIt does it again in Dallas-Fort Worth! Why? Mystery!
Pretty sure this was something to do with preparing their dastardly plot to steal the North Stars.
Bastards...
posted by wenestvedt at 7:58 PM on February 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
The reason I-95/I-93/Rte. 1/Rte. 128 south of Boston are all so screwed up is because I-95 was originally planned to come right into Boston, briefly become part of I-695 (the "Inner Belt") then reemerge as I-95 after crossing the Charles into Cambridge and Somerville.
Then, in 1970, Gov. Frank Sargent canceled all new highway construction inside Rte. 128.
Nature abhors a vacuum and the feds abhor gaps in interstates, so they designated state Rte. 128 between Canton to the south and Woburn to the north as I-95. But of course, everybody kept calling it just 128.
A couple decades later, the state decided to mess around with Rte. 1, shifting its designation from Storrow Drive, the Jamaicaway and VFW Parkway to parts of I-93 and 128, um, 95, to Dedham (something about how they were tired of truckers figuring they could dive on Rte. 1 because it had a number only to get jammed under the too short bridges on Storrow Drive - fun fact: Removing "1" from Storrow Drive failed to solve this problem; truckers are still "storrowing" at a grand clip).
And then the state decided further to create a sort of 93 stub between the Braintree split and some random point on 128, where it simply ends for no discernible reason and becomes just 95 and 1 (and for us oldtimers, 128).
Fun with Google maps: this shows the interchange of 95 and 128 in Canton. The northern half of the interchange was built for I-95 to continue into Boston, which it doesn't. Today, there are some walking paths you can take to get there and stand on the middle of an interstate interchange at rush hour with no traffic.
posted by adamg at 8:03 PM on February 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
Then, in 1970, Gov. Frank Sargent canceled all new highway construction inside Rte. 128.
Nature abhors a vacuum and the feds abhor gaps in interstates, so they designated state Rte. 128 between Canton to the south and Woburn to the north as I-95. But of course, everybody kept calling it just 128.
A couple decades later, the state decided to mess around with Rte. 1, shifting its designation from Storrow Drive, the Jamaicaway and VFW Parkway to parts of I-93 and 128, um, 95, to Dedham (something about how they were tired of truckers figuring they could dive on Rte. 1 because it had a number only to get jammed under the too short bridges on Storrow Drive - fun fact: Removing "1" from Storrow Drive failed to solve this problem; truckers are still "storrowing" at a grand clip).
And then the state decided further to create a sort of 93 stub between the Braintree split and some random point on 128, where it simply ends for no discernible reason and becomes just 95 and 1 (and for us oldtimers, 128).
Fun with Google maps: this shows the interchange of 95 and 128 in Canton. The northern half of the interchange was built for I-95 to continue into Boston, which it doesn't. Today, there are some walking paths you can take to get there and stand on the middle of an interstate interchange at rush hour with no traffic.
posted by adamg at 8:03 PM on February 17, 2022 [7 favorites]
Nature abhors a vacuum and the feds abhor gaps in interstates
They used to. Not so much these days. I-49 remains a bunch of disconnected pieces with long term plans to connect them
posted by wierdo at 8:32 PM on February 17, 2022
They used to. Not so much these days. I-49 remains a bunch of disconnected pieces with long term plans to connect them
posted by wierdo at 8:32 PM on February 17, 2022
I honestly thought this was common knowledge, I quiz my kids on it when we go on road trips! "Okay, if we're getting on 474, what kind of road is it, and which direction are we going?"
So that sort of thing does play in Peoria
More interstate fun:
* I-180, Cheyenne, WY, is not a freeway at all. There are traffic lights
* H-201, Honolulu, is the only interstate with 4 characters on its marker (H, 2, 0, 1)
* I-41, Wisconsin, is entirely and superfluously colocated with US 41
posted by kurumi at 8:34 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
So that sort of thing does play in Peoria
More interstate fun:
* I-180, Cheyenne, WY, is not a freeway at all. There are traffic lights
* H-201, Honolulu, is the only interstate with 4 characters on its marker (H, 2, 0, 1)
* I-41, Wisconsin, is entirely and superfluously colocated with US 41
posted by kurumi at 8:34 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I too am old and enjoyed this as a recitation. Northernest is a wierd word.
posted by janell at 9:12 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by janell at 9:12 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I honestly think I learned this stuff in Drivers' Ed, which maybe was just my weird teacher, but maybe was that I live in the Chicago area, and we have a whole bunch of East/West interstates that ACTUALLY go North/South through the city to get around Lake Michigan, so maybe it was relevant local knowledge? All the road signs are like "I-94 West to Milwaukee" and THAT'S DUE NORTH, even a bit Northeastish in spots. But I do remember that a question on a test was what the three complete coast-to-coast E/W interstates in the US were (I-10, I-80, I-90).
Anyway, like my dad always did when we were on road trips, I encourage my kids to do road sign math and speed math and learn how interstate numbers give you information about the road and all that stuff. It's something to talk about on long drives! And it's surprisingly useful information.
The other thing I really encourage them to learn, besides how interstate numbering works and what secrets it encodes, is WHERE LAKE MICHIGAN IS AT ALL TIMES. I don't usually know what direction I'm facing, but I ALWAYS know where Lake Michigan is in relation to me. And if you ever get lost, you can just drive towards Lake Michigan until you find a highway you know, or the Lake, or the Wisconsin or Indiana state line, in which case you're found! The domination of the Lake in local direction sense is so intense that when I went to college in South Bend, it was SUPER common for people from Chicago and Wisconsin to say, "So you'll want to drive east" when they meant west -- because "East" was always "towards the Lake" and they were unthinkingly giving directions in South Bend towards the Lake. You get it in Michiganders who move to Chicago, too, who tell you go to "West" when they mean "East" because they actually mean "towards the Lake." It was sort-of revelatory when I read about more traditional navigation systems that were oriented towards particular mountains or islands or whatever, to realize that THAT'S KINDA HOW BRAINS WORK, and my brain is super-happy to elide all this N/S/E/W nonsense for "THE LAKE, WHERE IS THE LAKE, I NEED THE IMPORTANT INFO."
If you ask me "Which way are you facing?" I'd be like "uhhhhhhhhh ... I'm not sure ... uhhhhh ... South, I think?" But if you ask me, "Where's Lake Michigan?" I can point that way instantaneously. (To my left, which means that, yes, I am facing south rn.) I ALWAYS know where the Lake is.
I like that little snippet of I-77 in Virginia (under W. Va, just north of NC) where I-77 North IS ALSO I-81 South, and vice versa. (And of course while you're going north on I-77 and south on I-81, you're actually going DUE WEST.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:40 PM on February 17, 2022 [13 favorites]
Anyway, like my dad always did when we were on road trips, I encourage my kids to do road sign math and speed math and learn how interstate numbers give you information about the road and all that stuff. It's something to talk about on long drives! And it's surprisingly useful information.
The other thing I really encourage them to learn, besides how interstate numbering works and what secrets it encodes, is WHERE LAKE MICHIGAN IS AT ALL TIMES. I don't usually know what direction I'm facing, but I ALWAYS know where Lake Michigan is in relation to me. And if you ever get lost, you can just drive towards Lake Michigan until you find a highway you know, or the Lake, or the Wisconsin or Indiana state line, in which case you're found! The domination of the Lake in local direction sense is so intense that when I went to college in South Bend, it was SUPER common for people from Chicago and Wisconsin to say, "So you'll want to drive east" when they meant west -- because "East" was always "towards the Lake" and they were unthinkingly giving directions in South Bend towards the Lake. You get it in Michiganders who move to Chicago, too, who tell you go to "West" when they mean "East" because they actually mean "towards the Lake." It was sort-of revelatory when I read about more traditional navigation systems that were oriented towards particular mountains or islands or whatever, to realize that THAT'S KINDA HOW BRAINS WORK, and my brain is super-happy to elide all this N/S/E/W nonsense for "THE LAKE, WHERE IS THE LAKE, I NEED THE IMPORTANT INFO."
If you ask me "Which way are you facing?" I'd be like "uhhhhhhhhh ... I'm not sure ... uhhhhh ... South, I think?" But if you ask me, "Where's Lake Michigan?" I can point that way instantaneously. (To my left, which means that, yes, I am facing south rn.) I ALWAYS know where the Lake is.
I like that little snippet of I-77 in Virginia (under W. Va, just north of NC) where I-77 North IS ALSO I-81 South, and vice versa. (And of course while you're going north on I-77 and south on I-81, you're actually going DUE WEST.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:40 PM on February 17, 2022 [13 favorites]
oh man I laughed HARD at the E/W/C suffixes
you know, I've actually always wondered if I-76 deliberately runs through Philadelphia, or if it's just a coincidence
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:53 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
you know, I've actually always wondered if I-76 deliberately runs through Philadelphia, or if it's just a coincidence
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:53 PM on February 17, 2022 [1 favorite]
I learned this as a teen in the 70s. Well most of it. I also vaguely remember being told that all of the entrances and exits on the interstates are wide enough for military vehicles, including tanks, to be able to use them. There are also a lot of federal funding issues/associations that go with interstate highways. For example, the state in which the highway is sets the speed limit. Except, in the 70s or maybe 80s, the federales coerced all states to set the speed limit at 55 by telling them they would not get highway funds if the speed limit were higher. (must have been the 70s after the OPEC oil crisis?)
Having lived in Chicago for many years I can attest to Eyebrows McGee's assessment of the strangeness of driving N-S on 90/94 and the know where the lake is and you can get anywhere concept. When I first moved to CHicago in the early 80s, pre GPS and cell phones, I asked a friend who lived there how to get from NY to my apartment in Chicago. I was prepared to write out a lot of directions. Instead, it was 4 roads. Take 80W to 90/94W (really N-S at that point) to the Fullerton exit, head toward the lake and make a left on Clark st. I was across the street from the Wiener Circle. 4 roads from the George to my apartment.
THe narrator mentions the LIE/495. I grew up on the Island. Anyway, one day at rush hour circa 1975, my dad got pulled over for speeding. THe officer asked him if he knew how fast he was going, "Yes, officer, 70mph. Isn't it amazing! Have you ever been able to do 70 at rush hour in this road?! I had to because I could." Officer let him off with a laugh and a "warning" to not speed at rush hour even if he can.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:18 AM on February 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
Having lived in Chicago for many years I can attest to Eyebrows McGee's assessment of the strangeness of driving N-S on 90/94 and the know where the lake is and you can get anywhere concept. When I first moved to CHicago in the early 80s, pre GPS and cell phones, I asked a friend who lived there how to get from NY to my apartment in Chicago. I was prepared to write out a lot of directions. Instead, it was 4 roads. Take 80W to 90/94W (really N-S at that point) to the Fullerton exit, head toward the lake and make a left on Clark st. I was across the street from the Wiener Circle. 4 roads from the George to my apartment.
THe narrator mentions the LIE/495. I grew up on the Island. Anyway, one day at rush hour circa 1975, my dad got pulled over for speeding. THe officer asked him if he knew how fast he was going, "Yes, officer, 70mph. Isn't it amazing! Have you ever been able to do 70 at rush hour in this road?! I had to because I could." Officer let him off with a laugh and a "warning" to not speed at rush hour even if he can.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 12:18 AM on February 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
His use of "Anorak" was interesting. As was his supremely neutral accent (especially for someone who claims L.I. as home). And of course the content of the video itself - he was right next to the point that the whole naming of the highways has its own organic component and the vagaries and inconsistencies approach the same malleability as languages: and maybe the grid (a uniquely, or damn near uniquely, American thing) has its own intricacies nestled between its strict Cartesian orientation.
Very satisfying.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:55 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Very satisfying.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:55 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I like that little snippet of I-77 in Virginia (under W. Va, just north of NC) where I-77 North IS ALSO I-81 South, and vice versa. (And of course while you're going north on I-77 and south on I-81, you're actually going DUE WEST.)
With any luck I’ll be traveling that particular wrong-way concurrency in about 3-4 hours!
posted by TedW at 3:22 AM on February 18, 2022
With any luck I’ll be traveling that particular wrong-way concurrency in about 3-4 hours!
posted by TedW at 3:22 AM on February 18, 2022
(something about how they were tired of truckers figuring they could dive on Rte. 1 because it had a number only to get jammed under the too short bridges on Storrow Drive - fun fact: Removing "1" from Storrow Drive failed to solve this problem; truckers are still "storrowing" at a grand clip).
I always heard that it was done in advance of the 1994 World Cup so visitors would have an easier time finding their way from Boston to Foxboro Stadium, but not letting truckers forge their own Southwest Corridor onto Storrow Drive also makes sense.
Also, having grown up on the South Shore, I will fight anyone who says Route 3 should be signed as U.S. 3 from Cambridge to Bourne. It's *clearly* a different road, even if for all intents and purposes the state considers them to be the same road (same mile makers).
posted by RonButNotStupid at 3:30 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
I always heard that it was done in advance of the 1994 World Cup so visitors would have an easier time finding their way from Boston to Foxboro Stadium, but not letting truckers forge their own Southwest Corridor onto Storrow Drive also makes sense.
Also, having grown up on the South Shore, I will fight anyone who says Route 3 should be signed as U.S. 3 from Cambridge to Bourne. It's *clearly* a different road, even if for all intents and purposes the state considers them to be the same road (same mile makers).
posted by RonButNotStupid at 3:30 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
Except, in the 70s or maybe 80s, the federales coerced all states to set the speed limit at 55
Started in the 70s. My recollection is that it ended in the first Bush administration. For much of that period, cars were required to have 55 highlighted on the speedometer to remind people of the national speed limit.
Where I grew up they had built a 3 digit interstate through town, signed east/west. Later, the state built a new north/south highway that was notionally an extension of the existing one, never mind that it didn't actually connect. That part was signed north/south. After a decade or so they finally re-signed the old part as north/south also. It's still not connected, but the new highway got renumbered relatively recently along with plans to connect it to a new highway bypassing the old one.
In one city I lived in later that was, and still is, growing like a top, you can easily tell the old timers from all the new people when giving or receiving directions because the old timers always call the highway "the bypass," since it was signed with a "bypass" plate below the US highway shield that way for years before it became connected to the interstate system and got blue shields.
posted by wierdo at 4:03 AM on February 18, 2022
Started in the 70s. My recollection is that it ended in the first Bush administration. For much of that period, cars were required to have 55 highlighted on the speedometer to remind people of the national speed limit.
Where I grew up they had built a 3 digit interstate through town, signed east/west. Later, the state built a new north/south highway that was notionally an extension of the existing one, never mind that it didn't actually connect. That part was signed north/south. After a decade or so they finally re-signed the old part as north/south also. It's still not connected, but the new highway got renumbered relatively recently along with plans to connect it to a new highway bypassing the old one.
In one city I lived in later that was, and still is, growing like a top, you can easily tell the old timers from all the new people when giving or receiving directions because the old timers always call the highway "the bypass," since it was signed with a "bypass" plate below the US highway shield that way for years before it became connected to the interstate system and got blue shields.
posted by wierdo at 4:03 AM on February 18, 2022
I Imagined L i z Taylor's car breaking down in midwinter...I90 flares off to NYC minutes from my house...
Strictly speaking it flares off to Batavia. Which would be even funnier for it still to be Liz Taylor just *desperate* to make it to Batavia Downs and Tractor Supply on time.
Wehrle/Cleveland area?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:20 AM on February 18, 2022
Strictly speaking it flares off to Batavia. Which would be even funnier for it still to be Liz Taylor just *desperate* to make it to Batavia Downs and Tractor Supply on time.
Wehrle/Cleveland area?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:20 AM on February 18, 2022
I honestly thought this was common knowledge
When we were young, I think it was. Growing up I had at least 5 different books about the highway system. Does anyone remember those books? This was wayyyy before the web, so curious boys had to hang out at the library. Or have folks like mine that would buy me any book I wanted - with certain restrictions. I also remember films they showed in school about highway projects and the like, and I think that was the bite that got me interested in civil engineering.
I doubt if they teach anything like that now in elementary school.
posted by james33 at 5:26 AM on February 18, 2022
When we were young, I think it was. Growing up I had at least 5 different books about the highway system. Does anyone remember those books? This was wayyyy before the web, so curious boys had to hang out at the library. Or have folks like mine that would buy me any book I wanted - with certain restrictions. I also remember films they showed in school about highway projects and the like, and I think that was the bite that got me interested in civil engineering.
I doubt if they teach anything like that now in elementary school.
posted by james33 at 5:26 AM on February 18, 2022
I think the soundtrack of this thread should be Roadrunner
When I was commuting to college I'd sometimes drive around the highway system just to, I dunno, experience it and associate places with the lines on the map. Get on the Turnpike and grab a ticket. See what it's like for 128 to become I-95 in Peabody. Drive U.S. 6 all the way from the canal to the Rhode Island border. Go through that lonely trumpet interchange in the middle of nowhere where I-195 meets up with I-495 and somehow neither survives the experience because the road becomes MA-25. Drive that weird super-2 section of 126 in near Andover.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:18 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
When I was commuting to college I'd sometimes drive around the highway system just to, I dunno, experience it and associate places with the lines on the map. Get on the Turnpike and grab a ticket. See what it's like for 128 to become I-95 in Peabody. Drive U.S. 6 all the way from the canal to the Rhode Island border. Go through that lonely trumpet interchange in the middle of nowhere where I-195 meets up with I-495 and somehow neither survives the experience because the road becomes MA-25. Drive that weird super-2 section of 126 in near Andover.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 6:18 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
only to get jammed under the too short bridges on Storrow Drive - fun fact: Removing "1" from Storrow Drive failed to solve this problem; truckers are still "storrowing" at a grand clip
This was so bad in Chicago that when I was working for a trucking company, the city had a "hotline" you could call and they would map out your route pretty much from the city limits to your end destination to avoid all the low bridges.
We still had trucks get stuck all the time...
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:48 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
This was so bad in Chicago that when I was working for a trucking company, the city had a "hotline" you could call and they would map out your route pretty much from the city limits to your end destination to avoid all the low bridges.
We still had trucks get stuck all the time...
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:48 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
People talk about the dangers of texting and driving, but have no idea about fumbling your way around DC or LA with a spiral bound Thomas Guide on your lap.Thanks for the memory, bartleby. The DC Thomas Guide was the worst! They just mechanically divided the map into a grid and set the grid onto pages so that most crucial and convoluted area to navigate was spread across four separate grid squares, i.e. pages. I had to flip back and forth between all of them while trying to keep the connections between them straight in my head.
Ugh. The worst.
posted by whuppy at 7:02 AM on February 18, 2022 [5 favorites]
In Maryland, I-695 is the Baltimore Beltway (aka "The Beltway) and I-495 is the DC Beltway (aka "The Beltway"). Being roughly circular, both of these roads travel north, south, east and west, in both directions. This may have something to do with why I was never taught about the interstate numbering system.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:19 AM on February 18, 2022
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:19 AM on February 18, 2022
Wikipedia articles have gotten extensive attention from highway nerds. From the Interstate 99 article:
This was the first Interstate Highway number to be written into law rather than to be assigned by AASHTO. The number was specified by Representative Bud Shuster, who said that the standard spur numbering was not "catchy"; instead, I-99 was named after a street car, No. 99, that took people from Shuster's hometown of Glassport to McKeesport. I-99 violates the AASHTO numbering convention associated with Interstate Highways, since it lies east of I-79 but west of I-81.
posted by gimonca at 7:36 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
This was the first Interstate Highway number to be written into law rather than to be assigned by AASHTO. The number was specified by Representative Bud Shuster, who said that the standard spur numbering was not "catchy"; instead, I-99 was named after a street car, No. 99, that took people from Shuster's hometown of Glassport to McKeesport. I-99 violates the AASHTO numbering convention associated with Interstate Highways, since it lies east of I-79 but west of I-81.
posted by gimonca at 7:36 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Eyebrows McGee: ...WHERE LAKE MICHIGAN IS AT ALL TIMES...
When people visit Boston, I used to tell them to look for the two tallest buildings downtown -- the Pru and...the one at Copely that popped out its windows -- which mark a perfect West-to-East bearing.
But now there are so many new buildings that it can be hard to see those two!
So I just don't go to Boston any more.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:18 AM on February 18, 2022 [5 favorites]
When people visit Boston, I used to tell them to look for the two tallest buildings downtown -- the Pru and...the one at Copely that popped out its windows -- which mark a perfect West-to-East bearing.
But now there are so many new buildings that it can be hard to see those two!
So I just don't go to Boston any more.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:18 AM on February 18, 2022 [5 favorites]
If you ask me "Which way are you facing?" I'd be like "uhhhhhhhhh ... I'm not sure ... uhhhhh ... South, I think?" But if you ask me, "Where's Lake Michigan?" I can point that way instantaneously. (To my left, which means that, yes, I am facing south rn.) I ALWAYS know where the Lake is.
I live on the east coast of Florida, so my brain is fully imprinted on "water = east". To the extent that once when we were visiting San Francisco, my husband asked me how to get to such and such a place, and I said, "I think it's about 10 miles west" and he gave me a strange look and said "I'm pretty sure it's not underwater." No, just my brain thinking "inland = west".
posted by Daily Alice at 8:21 AM on February 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
I live on the east coast of Florida, so my brain is fully imprinted on "water = east". To the extent that once when we were visiting San Francisco, my husband asked me how to get to such and such a place, and I said, "I think it's about 10 miles west" and he gave me a strange look and said "I'm pretty sure it's not underwater." No, just my brain thinking "inland = west".
posted by Daily Alice at 8:21 AM on February 18, 2022 [8 favorites]
People talk about the dangers of texting and driving, but have no idea about fumbling your way around DC or LA with a spiral bound Thomas Guide on your lap.
The very first time I drove in the US and in fact the first time on - what was for me at the time - the wrong side of the road, was coming out of the San Jose, CA airport rental parking lot into rush hour traffic with a book of maps. I think I made as far as Saratoga Ave before I realized just how unlikely it was I would get to where I wanted to be. Poor little rental car - I ended up driving it about 50 miles before I realized the parking brake was still on - I just thought it was seriously underpowered.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:42 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
The very first time I drove in the US and in fact the first time on - what was for me at the time - the wrong side of the road, was coming out of the San Jose, CA airport rental parking lot into rush hour traffic with a book of maps. I think I made as far as Saratoga Ave before I realized just how unlikely it was I would get to where I wanted to be. Poor little rental car - I ended up driving it about 50 miles before I realized the parking brake was still on - I just thought it was seriously underpowered.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 8:42 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
I grew up in the DC area, at a time when there was a distinction (now lost, maybe?) between the I-95 and I-495 sides of the Beltway.
Now I live in San Jose, CA, right where I-280 southbound becomes, with no transition whatsoever, I-680 northbound.
posted by hanov3r at 8:45 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Now I live in San Jose, CA, right where I-280 southbound becomes, with no transition whatsoever, I-680 northbound.
posted by hanov3r at 8:45 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
The DC Thomas Guide was the worst!
Perhaps -- wouldn't know, I always used AAA maps when I lived in DC/MD/NoVa. But when I moved to LA in 1987 I learned that the Thomas Guide maps were way more attractive than AAA's products, plus the book was a lot more convenient to leaf through (as opposed to fumbling/folding/unfolding maps) and the index system was easier, too. Plus they made these great wall maps of the entire LA basin -- sometimes you see them on the walls of police stations, in old films. But the company foundered towards the end of the century, first attempting to expand into new territory on the East Coast (like DC) and then being assimilated by Rand McNally, which killed the brand. More at the LAist: Thomas Guide Maps: The Rise And Fall of LA's Directional Holy Grail.
posted by Rash at 8:50 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Perhaps -- wouldn't know, I always used AAA maps when I lived in DC/MD/NoVa. But when I moved to LA in 1987 I learned that the Thomas Guide maps were way more attractive than AAA's products, plus the book was a lot more convenient to leaf through (as opposed to fumbling/folding/unfolding maps) and the index system was easier, too. Plus they made these great wall maps of the entire LA basin -- sometimes you see them on the walls of police stations, in old films. But the company foundered towards the end of the century, first attempting to expand into new territory on the East Coast (like DC) and then being assimilated by Rand McNally, which killed the brand. More at the LAist: Thomas Guide Maps: The Rise And Fall of LA's Directional Holy Grail.
posted by Rash at 8:50 AM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
there was a distinction (now lost, maybe?) between the I-95 and I-495 sides of the Beltway
Oh, that distinction still exists. Rather important, I'd say -- 95 is the east side of the Beltway, now. But when the Beltway was new, and for the longest time, I-95 south coming from Baltimore just ended at the Beltway, the whole circle was I-495. And then there's always trouble trying to describe going East/South/West/North well which way was it? Some like me wanted to dispense with these directions and just go with CW (clockwise) and CCW (counter clockwise) and there are signs around the Beltway labeling it Inner Loop or Outer Loop. Then someone decided 95 shouldn't break, too confusing so the shorter (eastern) leg was relabeled I-95.
posted by Rash at 9:01 AM on February 18, 2022
Oh, that distinction still exists. Rather important, I'd say -- 95 is the east side of the Beltway, now. But when the Beltway was new, and for the longest time, I-95 south coming from Baltimore just ended at the Beltway, the whole circle was I-495. And then there's always trouble trying to describe going East/South/West/North well which way was it? Some like me wanted to dispense with these directions and just go with CW (clockwise) and CCW (counter clockwise) and there are signs around the Beltway labeling it Inner Loop or Outer Loop. Then someone decided 95 shouldn't break, too confusing so the shorter (eastern) leg was relabeled I-95.
posted by Rash at 9:01 AM on February 18, 2022
there is a stretch of 80 that runs through Berkeley CA that is also 580. now, if you are driving north it's 80 East, but it's also 580 West. also the road is running perfectly due N/S at that point. fun!
posted by supermedusa at 9:40 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 9:40 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
the one at Copely that popped out its windows
John Hancock! Good times. I was afraid of skyscrapers for years after that happened.
posted by jessamyn at 10:01 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
John Hancock! Good times. I was afraid of skyscrapers for years after that happened.
posted by jessamyn at 10:01 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
Why aren't we fighting about whether to call a particular highway or interstate 95 or THE 95? As in, drive here, drive there, get on 95/the 95, and then drive there.
I think it might be an east coast/west coast thing? I've definitely heard about THE 101 and THE something in Texas, but never THE 85 or THE 95 to travel the east coast.
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:06 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think it might be an east coast/west coast thing? I've definitely heard about THE 101 and THE something in Texas, but never THE 85 or THE 95 to travel the east coast.
posted by Snowishberlin at 10:06 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh I-95/Interstate 95/Route 128/Route 1 all the way.
Calling it THE 95 or (even worse) THE 1 or (somehow even worse) THE 128 just sounds wrong.
However, just calling them '95' or '128' is acceptable. There's no way we're going to confuse them with some other 95 or 128. You don't need the definite article.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:40 AM on February 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
Calling it THE 95 or (even worse) THE 1 or (somehow even worse) THE 128 just sounds wrong.
However, just calling them '95' or '128' is acceptable. There's no way we're going to confuse them with some other 95 or 128. You don't need the definite article.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 10:40 AM on February 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
Why aren't we fighting about whether to call a particular highway or interstate 95 or THE 95?
As far as I know, only Southern California appends "the" before a route number. Mental Floss explains why. As I've traveled westward (grew up in NJ, lived in Chicago, and now live in Southern CA), my speech patterns have adapted to what the locals call the roads. So when I talk about the roads around my hometown, I still just say "80" or "46" or "the Turnpike/the Parkway." (80 is an interstate, 46 is a state road, but everybody just referenced highways by number without specifying.) Chicago seemed to mainly refer to highways by name, but I didn't have a car so I never learned them. It doesn't help that my brain will only accept numbers as freeway designations. And when I talk about highways here in SoCal, I append "the" (the 5, the 110, the godforsaken 101). The freeways here actually have names, but I haven't learned all of them yet (especially because some names only apply to sections of a highway, which really breaks my brain). Since I only use I-15 to visit my mom in Nevada, I call it "I-15" as she does.
Anyway, the tl;dr is that I defer to locals - I'd ignore someone giving me shit for calling it "the 101" because that is what people call it out here but if someone referred to 95 in NJ as "the 95" I'd be ready to throw down. But this is less a comment on road knowledge than an indication of how weirdly attached USians are to the relationship between our local speech patterns and local roads.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 10:43 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
As far as I know, only Southern California appends "the" before a route number. Mental Floss explains why. As I've traveled westward (grew up in NJ, lived in Chicago, and now live in Southern CA), my speech patterns have adapted to what the locals call the roads. So when I talk about the roads around my hometown, I still just say "80" or "46" or "the Turnpike/the Parkway." (80 is an interstate, 46 is a state road, but everybody just referenced highways by number without specifying.) Chicago seemed to mainly refer to highways by name, but I didn't have a car so I never learned them. It doesn't help that my brain will only accept numbers as freeway designations. And when I talk about highways here in SoCal, I append "the" (the 5, the 110, the godforsaken 101). The freeways here actually have names, but I haven't learned all of them yet (especially because some names only apply to sections of a highway, which really breaks my brain). Since I only use I-15 to visit my mom in Nevada, I call it "I-15" as she does.
Anyway, the tl;dr is that I defer to locals - I'd ignore someone giving me shit for calling it "the 101" because that is what people call it out here but if someone referred to 95 in NJ as "the 95" I'd be ready to throw down. But this is less a comment on road knowledge than an indication of how weirdly attached USians are to the relationship between our local speech patterns and local roads.
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? at 10:43 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
Despite having no real love for cars, I love maps, navigation, orienteering and road systems. I have a compass on my bike's handlebar stem cap that works and there's almost always a map of the local trail systems tucked into the transparent map pocket of my handlebar bag mainly just because it looks cool, but also so I can give directions to bicycle tourists passing through my area without having to crowd around a phone. Sometimes I even just give them the map and go pick up a new one from the stations at the local trail heads.
And over the years I've learned I have a really good sense of direction and navigation and I rarely get lost. Even without a compass I can usually point to geographical north within about 3 degrees from wherever I'm standing day or night just by visual cues, and I can even usually do it if it's cloudy at night like I have a compass in my head.
I've talked about this here before but I get lost so rarely that I actively enjoy it when I do manage to get lost like a real world puzzle, and for whatever reason I seem to really enjoy feeling a little bewildered and confused by being lost.
And for some reason this is reminding me of an anecdotal and only vaguely road trip and map related story.
I went out to a desert rave near Death Valley with some friends and ended up taking a little too much of something to the point I was still under the influence long after the sun had risen and we were in the car on our way home, and I was kind of stuck in a fugue or a loop from the whole thing. And this was maybe the 100th desert party like this that I'd been to at the point and I was really familiar with the high deserts of California.
And, well, I was both metaphorically and non-figuratively lost and not enjoying it very much and being kind of glitchy. My good friend that was driving was concerned and possibly also annoyed or concerned that I was glitching and kept babbling nonsense.
Well, somehow he had the brilliant idea to pretend he didn't know where we were and asked me if I could go into the glove box and find the map in there and figure out where we were.
Orienteering nerd and helpful nerd me said "sure!" and went straight to work, digging the map out and unfolding it over my lap like a table cloth in the passenger seat and inspecting all of glyphs and lines and then *bam* 30 seconds later I was back on Earth with my feet firmly on the ground out of my glitchy fugue state and I knew exactly where I was.
And then thirty seconds after that and some much more comfortable silence I spoke up and said "Wait, you didn't actually need directions, did you? I don't know how you knew that would reset me like that but it worked. Thanks!"
posted by loquacious at 10:56 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
And over the years I've learned I have a really good sense of direction and navigation and I rarely get lost. Even without a compass I can usually point to geographical north within about 3 degrees from wherever I'm standing day or night just by visual cues, and I can even usually do it if it's cloudy at night like I have a compass in my head.
I've talked about this here before but I get lost so rarely that I actively enjoy it when I do manage to get lost like a real world puzzle, and for whatever reason I seem to really enjoy feeling a little bewildered and confused by being lost.
And for some reason this is reminding me of an anecdotal and only vaguely road trip and map related story.
I went out to a desert rave near Death Valley with some friends and ended up taking a little too much of something to the point I was still under the influence long after the sun had risen and we were in the car on our way home, and I was kind of stuck in a fugue or a loop from the whole thing. And this was maybe the 100th desert party like this that I'd been to at the point and I was really familiar with the high deserts of California.
And, well, I was both metaphorically and non-figuratively lost and not enjoying it very much and being kind of glitchy. My good friend that was driving was concerned and possibly also annoyed or concerned that I was glitching and kept babbling nonsense.
Well, somehow he had the brilliant idea to pretend he didn't know where we were and asked me if I could go into the glove box and find the map in there and figure out where we were.
Orienteering nerd and helpful nerd me said "sure!" and went straight to work, digging the map out and unfolding it over my lap like a table cloth in the passenger seat and inspecting all of glyphs and lines and then *bam* 30 seconds later I was back on Earth with my feet firmly on the ground out of my glitchy fugue state and I knew exactly where I was.
And then thirty seconds after that and some much more comfortable silence I spoke up and said "Wait, you didn't actually need directions, did you? I don't know how you knew that would reset me like that but it worked. Thanks!"
posted by loquacious at 10:56 AM on February 18, 2022 [4 favorites]
I-99! man. As one person said, I-99 would be off in the Atlantic ocean if we followed the way Interstates are named. Good ol' Bud Shuster. He's got his name on a few highway projects in PA. he also was a force for funding the Big Dig in Boston, and it was the corruption there that lead to his downfall. Never fear, though PA folks elected his son a few times because why not?
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 11:03 AM on February 18, 2022 [2 favorites]
Regarding I-35E and I-35W in Minnesota and Texas, my guess is that it was a political decision to not make one city seem more important than the other. The mayors of Ft. Worth and St. Paul complained “why do we have to be on I-235 like some kind of chump” and calls were placed to their senators.
posted by otters walk among us at 11:04 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by otters walk among us at 11:04 AM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
On E/W freeways, the mile markers start at zero from the west boundary of a state and end at the last measured mile at the east border of the state. The mile marker count resets as it crosses the state line. On N/S freeways, the mile markers start at zero from the southernmost part of the freeway.
I drove big trucks coast to coast for several years. I have driven every freeway between I-10 and I-90, and several of the odd numbers. But most of my trips were on I-40. I could go on forever about the joys of I-40, but that would be weird, and I'm not like that anymore.
We could move a load from the San Joaquin Valley to Hunt's Point in sixty-five hours without breaking a sweat or getting a ticket. Then we take the empty trailer to a Western Carloading lot in Manhattan, where we then pick up a trailer loaded with general freight and haul it to LA. Yes, I was the asshole who drove a tractor-trailer rig down Broadway and parked it with the flashers on while I got a to-go order from that Mexican restaurant. That was me. But I am not like that anymore.
We ran the truck 22 hours a day, every day except the rare layover day at one end of the run or the other. Now and then, we went to Portland or Seattle with a load of produce, then deadhead across Snoqualmie to Moses Lake for boxes of potatoes bound for someplace like Chicago.
Along I-40, freeways did not yet connect with some smaller towns. So we drove through them slowly, Motel Strips, with gas stations, diners, tire repair shops. (Winslow, Arizona. Sigh)
I drove two shifts daily, a gerrymandered schedule that kept my logged hours legal. It was easy to forget which way I was going. We knew places along the way by their mile markers: fuel stops, places for a quick break to refill my thermos bottle, rest stops. We stopped to refuel in Alabama. Midnight. Nancy's shift. She woke me when she finished fueling, and we went inside to eat. Her supper, my breakfast. About an hour for the truck to be off work, not earning for us.
After eating, I walked around the truck with my tire billy, thumping the tires, looking at hose connections, looking for leaks. Nancy starts the truck for me before she crawls back into the sleeper. I check all lights.
Slap the brake buttons, ease out of the parting place, and onto the service road. I approach the cloverleaf onramps that service I-40. For a moment, I couldn't remember which way I was going. I look in my mirror at the tattletale lights on my reefer. They are off. No produce. I must be going west. I'm not sure.
Nancy pokes her head out from the privacy curtain sees me stopped. She sighs and says, "Westbound."
posted by mule98J at 11:15 AM on February 18, 2022 [20 favorites]
I drove big trucks coast to coast for several years. I have driven every freeway between I-10 and I-90, and several of the odd numbers. But most of my trips were on I-40. I could go on forever about the joys of I-40, but that would be weird, and I'm not like that anymore.
We could move a load from the San Joaquin Valley to Hunt's Point in sixty-five hours without breaking a sweat or getting a ticket. Then we take the empty trailer to a Western Carloading lot in Manhattan, where we then pick up a trailer loaded with general freight and haul it to LA. Yes, I was the asshole who drove a tractor-trailer rig down Broadway and parked it with the flashers on while I got a to-go order from that Mexican restaurant. That was me. But I am not like that anymore.
We ran the truck 22 hours a day, every day except the rare layover day at one end of the run or the other. Now and then, we went to Portland or Seattle with a load of produce, then deadhead across Snoqualmie to Moses Lake for boxes of potatoes bound for someplace like Chicago.
Along I-40, freeways did not yet connect with some smaller towns. So we drove through them slowly, Motel Strips, with gas stations, diners, tire repair shops. (Winslow, Arizona. Sigh)
I drove two shifts daily, a gerrymandered schedule that kept my logged hours legal. It was easy to forget which way I was going. We knew places along the way by their mile markers: fuel stops, places for a quick break to refill my thermos bottle, rest stops. We stopped to refuel in Alabama. Midnight. Nancy's shift. She woke me when she finished fueling, and we went inside to eat. Her supper, my breakfast. About an hour for the truck to be off work, not earning for us.
After eating, I walked around the truck with my tire billy, thumping the tires, looking at hose connections, looking for leaks. Nancy starts the truck for me before she crawls back into the sleeper. I check all lights.
Slap the brake buttons, ease out of the parting place, and onto the service road. I approach the cloverleaf onramps that service I-40. For a moment, I couldn't remember which way I was going. I look in my mirror at the tattletale lights on my reefer. They are off. No produce. I must be going west. I'm not sure.
Nancy pokes her head out from the privacy curtain sees me stopped. She sighs and says, "Westbound."
posted by mule98J at 11:15 AM on February 18, 2022 [20 favorites]
Video: "even-numbered interstates travel horizontally, odd-numbered interstates travel vertically"
Me: why am I taking I-65 to Huntsville to go to the rocket museum, if the road itself will take me to space?
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 11:34 AM on February 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
Me: why am I taking I-65 to Huntsville to go to the rocket museum, if the road itself will take me to space?
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 11:34 AM on February 18, 2022 [6 favorites]
This is forgotten?
I realized I'd internalized this when I noticed that I can never remember that 85 is west of 75 when you go south of Atlanta. (I live just north of Atlanta, so this happens sometimes.) I get why - they both run in straight lines, roughly - but somehow I can't get my head around it. If I were in charge the numbers would be switched south of Atlanta.
Also confusing around Atlanta - we have the Perimeter, I-285, which goes around the city. We don't have any of this "inner loop" or "outer loop" signage like they do in DC, so they basically sign it as if it's a rectangle, and if you come in at the northeast corner of it you have a choice between 285 South and 285 West. One time a new pitcher for the Braves drove all the way around a couple times and was late for the game he was supposed to start.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:12 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I realized I'd internalized this when I noticed that I can never remember that 85 is west of 75 when you go south of Atlanta. (I live just north of Atlanta, so this happens sometimes.) I get why - they both run in straight lines, roughly - but somehow I can't get my head around it. If I were in charge the numbers would be switched south of Atlanta.
Also confusing around Atlanta - we have the Perimeter, I-285, which goes around the city. We don't have any of this "inner loop" or "outer loop" signage like they do in DC, so they basically sign it as if it's a rectangle, and if you come in at the northeast corner of it you have a choice between 285 South and 285 West. One time a new pitcher for the Braves drove all the way around a couple times and was late for the game he was supposed to start.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:12 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
One thing I've wondered and never really figured out - where does 101 become the 101?
posted by madcaptenor at 12:14 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by madcaptenor at 12:14 PM on February 18, 2022 [3 favorites]
I get other kinds of confused. The first time I saw a sign telling me to go WEST to New York City, it totally disoriented me. The other big unexpected, were signs around Niagara, saying to go SOUTH to Canada. LOL
posted by Goofyy at 1:33 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Goofyy at 1:33 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
Goofyy: see also South Detroit. (It doesn’t exist except in that Journey song, because what’s south of downtown Detroit is Canada.)
posted by madcaptenor at 6:04 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by madcaptenor at 6:04 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
One thing I've wondered and never really figured out - where does 101 become the 101?
In practice today it's probably a bit north of SF Bay Area, and probably stops happening just south of the Oregon border with California. The use of the word "the" to describe a local freeway was definitely in use around SF because they have some similar colloquial or name-based freeway naming conventions.
Or roughly about where the bioregion and watershed known as Cascadia really starts.
As a transplant to the region I can testify that people in the PNW will call you out if you use "the" and even express some outrage and may even get offended like it's a social taboo or you just made a very rude noise.
Likewise people in LA and SoCal get confused and frighted if you say I-5 or I-405 instead of "the 5", especially if it's one of the freeways that has a name like "the Hollywood Freeway"
posted by loquacious at 6:59 PM on February 18, 2022
In practice today it's probably a bit north of SF Bay Area, and probably stops happening just south of the Oregon border with California. The use of the word "the" to describe a local freeway was definitely in use around SF because they have some similar colloquial or name-based freeway naming conventions.
Or roughly about where the bioregion and watershed known as Cascadia really starts.
As a transplant to the region I can testify that people in the PNW will call you out if you use "the" and even express some outrage and may even get offended like it's a social taboo or you just made a very rude noise.
Likewise people in LA and SoCal get confused and frighted if you say I-5 or I-405 instead of "the 5", especially if it's one of the freeways that has a name like "the Hollywood Freeway"
posted by loquacious at 6:59 PM on February 18, 2022
The 405 is in LA. I-405 is in Portland. It’s generally the non-interstate highways that are referred to by name (although people talk about the 101 like it’s an interstate, because it feels and functions like one, probably heard more than ‘Ventura Freeway.’)
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:40 PM on February 18, 2022
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:40 PM on February 18, 2022
I feel that there are some additional nuances to definite article usage at least in the Midwestern context, although on reflection I'm not sure if they are just personal quirks.
If I were giving someone directions in Indy I would call the local beltway "the 465". But I'm not an Indianapolitan -- would locals do the same?
In greater Chicagolandia, of course, the consequential expressways generally go by their proper names -- "the Borman", "the Toll Road", "the Ryan". To the extent the numbers are used, few would be so gauche as to refer to a two-digit interstate as e.g. "*the 80". But I have definitely referred to "the 355" and "the 290" (and I think I have heard traffic reporters do the same). I wouldn't think twice about calling the Tri-State "*the 294" if anybody actually called it that.
I wonder if there is a prosodic aspect to this, or if perhaps the three-digit expressways just naturally have a more specifically local vibe, so that it makes intuitive sense to stick a definite article on them in the same way that we do to named expressways.
posted by Not A Thing at 8:36 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
If I were giving someone directions in Indy I would call the local beltway "the 465". But I'm not an Indianapolitan -- would locals do the same?
In greater Chicagolandia, of course, the consequential expressways generally go by their proper names -- "the Borman", "the Toll Road", "the Ryan". To the extent the numbers are used, few would be so gauche as to refer to a two-digit interstate as e.g. "*the 80". But I have definitely referred to "the 355" and "the 290" (and I think I have heard traffic reporters do the same). I wouldn't think twice about calling the Tri-State "*the 294" if anybody actually called it that.
I wonder if there is a prosodic aspect to this, or if perhaps the three-digit expressways just naturally have a more specifically local vibe, so that it makes intuitive sense to stick a definite article on them in the same way that we do to named expressways.
posted by Not A Thing at 8:36 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
I always experienced “the” as a southern California thing that was frowned upon in northern California.
posted by bendy at 10:21 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by bendy at 10:21 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
NYC uses proper names with the definitive article too. But some of the names are abbreviations:
The BQE
The LIE
The FDR
The Van Wyck
The Deegan
The Cross Bronx
The Jackie
...etc.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:40 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
The BQE
The LIE
The FDR
The Van Wyck
The Deegan
The Cross Bronx
The Jackie
...etc.
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 10:40 PM on February 18, 2022 [1 favorite]
The Connecticut Turnpike, which is a section of I-95 runs East/West but the labeled North/South. The Hacker's Dictionary described the usage of saying a road runs, e.g. "logical North" or "logical South" when the actual direction of travel locally is different from the end-to-end directions.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:28 AM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by SemiSalt at 5:28 AM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
I grew up in Boston and until I moved out to Seattle (well, the east side) as an adult, I had no idea that I partially navigated by where I was in relation to the ocean. I once was driving down 405S and got on 5 going the wrong way because my brain said "Oh, I'm going to Seattle, which is next to the ocean and that's east..."
As for Sargent cancelling the inner belt and southwest expressway, there are other lingering relics of it besides an unused bridge or two at 93/95. The exit ramp on 93 for Mass Ave was exceptionally large, because it was originally scoped to be one of the ramps for the un-built highways. Similarly, there are some stubs on the 93 bridge just north of Boston that were planned for highways to merge in from the unbuilt sections.
The Wikipedia article for Interstate 695 (the 'inner belt') has some more info on it.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:32 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
As for Sargent cancelling the inner belt and southwest expressway, there are other lingering relics of it besides an unused bridge or two at 93/95. The exit ramp on 93 for Mass Ave was exceptionally large, because it was originally scoped to be one of the ramps for the un-built highways. Similarly, there are some stubs on the 93 bridge just north of Boston that were planned for highways to merge in from the unbuilt sections.
The Wikipedia article for Interstate 695 (the 'inner belt') has some more info on it.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:32 AM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
The use of the word "the" to describe a local freeway was definitely in use around SF because they have some similar colloquial or name-based freeway naming conventions.
As a local, I feel obliged to expand on this, with the caveat that a lot of traffic reporters seem to have come here from Southern California and have brought their speech patterns with them.
People from the SF Bay Area use "the" with a name, not a number. So you'll hear "the Bayshore" (Highway 101) or "the MacArthur Maze" (an interchange that once put me into a state I've described as "freeway aphasia", one of the oddest experiences I've had so far where I was clear on where I was coming from and where I was going to and yet in the moment had zero sense of how to connect those).
People don't say "the 101", "the 280", "the 580", etc. Not if they're actually from here.
It's kind of a shibboleth. Like the way that some nicknames for San Francisco are considered okay, while some will mark you as "NOT FROM HERE" to anyone who knows.
As a local, I know better than to use "Frisco". It's "SF", or "The City". Sometimes I do use my grandpa's term "Snaffersnickle" just to annoy people, though. It feels similar to Herb Caen's use of "Saccatomato" (misspelled from memory) for Sacramento.
posted by Lexica at 12:34 PM on February 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
As a local, I feel obliged to expand on this, with the caveat that a lot of traffic reporters seem to have come here from Southern California and have brought their speech patterns with them.
People from the SF Bay Area use "the" with a name, not a number. So you'll hear "the Bayshore" (Highway 101) or "the MacArthur Maze" (an interchange that once put me into a state I've described as "freeway aphasia", one of the oddest experiences I've had so far where I was clear on where I was coming from and where I was going to and yet in the moment had zero sense of how to connect those).
People don't say "the 101", "the 280", "the 580", etc. Not if they're actually from here.
It's kind of a shibboleth. Like the way that some nicknames for San Francisco are considered okay, while some will mark you as "NOT FROM HERE" to anyone who knows.
As a local, I know better than to use "Frisco". It's "SF", or "The City". Sometimes I do use my grandpa's term "Snaffersnickle" just to annoy people, though. It feels similar to Herb Caen's use of "Saccatomato" (misspelled from memory) for Sacramento.
posted by Lexica at 12:34 PM on February 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
Now that we're doing the names get definite articles except in SoCal discussion, I'm tempted to ask about 'Route' and people (like myself) who switch between 'root' and 'rowt'. There's probably some underlying rule (vowel sounds?) why one would say Root One but Rowt Nine. But I've never explored it.
"I drove to the store up on Root 4 to buy a new wireless rowter. But there was a lot of traffic, so I asked the GPS to find an alternate root; the little robot voice came on and said 'Rerowting, one moment please."
posted by bartleby at 1:23 PM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
"I drove to the store up on Root 4 to buy a new wireless rowter. But there was a lot of traffic, so I asked the GPS to find an alternate root; the little robot voice came on and said 'Rerowting, one moment please."
posted by bartleby at 1:23 PM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
I got to see some of the original early-1950s plans for running interstate and other highways through the city of Minneapolis, while doing research several years ago. Some of the highways that never got built:
Replacing Cedar Avenue with a freeway. Minnesota 77 now runs through Richfield, on the west side of the airport, but there was once a concept to run a limited-access highway all the way to the Cedar-Riverside area.
Replacing Hiawatha Avenue with a freeway. This concept was successfully blocked by neighborhood opposition. In the early 2000s the first rail transit line starting running down this corridor.
The original plan for I-94 north and west of downtown would have taken it through the Northside, roughly down West Broadway and through Robbinsdale. By the time it was built in the early 80s, it was moved to its current route due north, parallel to the river.
At one time, there was a concept for an east-west freeway in the block or two north of Lake Street, branching southwest off of I-94 about where MN 280 branches north, crossing the river, and roughly following the corridor known as the Midtown Greenway today, and then possibly continuing west.
There was a concept to run a freeway southwest of downtown between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles in the early 50s. Needless to say, the well-to-do residents there put the kibosh on that pretty quickly. Today the southwest light rail is still trying to get built on the same alignment, more or less.
Finally, there was the somewhat better known concept of I-335, which would have gone from the Minneapolis/Roseville border and cut west over the river to join I-94 north of downtown. Neighborhood opposition effectively killed it off in the 1970s, but it lived on as a zombie project until about 1982. There are still neighborhoods in the area with some 1980s-era houses, built on the lots that were cleared of the original houses for the highway construction. The odd kink in I-35W around Johnson/Stinson/Hennepin was engineered to support the I-335 intersection that was never built.
I'll admit I kind of enjoy walking around with these bits of local highway trivia.....but I'm also glad these were never completed.
posted by gimonca at 2:18 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Replacing Cedar Avenue with a freeway. Minnesota 77 now runs through Richfield, on the west side of the airport, but there was once a concept to run a limited-access highway all the way to the Cedar-Riverside area.
Replacing Hiawatha Avenue with a freeway. This concept was successfully blocked by neighborhood opposition. In the early 2000s the first rail transit line starting running down this corridor.
The original plan for I-94 north and west of downtown would have taken it through the Northside, roughly down West Broadway and through Robbinsdale. By the time it was built in the early 80s, it was moved to its current route due north, parallel to the river.
At one time, there was a concept for an east-west freeway in the block or two north of Lake Street, branching southwest off of I-94 about where MN 280 branches north, crossing the river, and roughly following the corridor known as the Midtown Greenway today, and then possibly continuing west.
There was a concept to run a freeway southwest of downtown between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles in the early 50s. Needless to say, the well-to-do residents there put the kibosh on that pretty quickly. Today the southwest light rail is still trying to get built on the same alignment, more or less.
Finally, there was the somewhat better known concept of I-335, which would have gone from the Minneapolis/Roseville border and cut west over the river to join I-94 north of downtown. Neighborhood opposition effectively killed it off in the 1970s, but it lived on as a zombie project until about 1982. There are still neighborhoods in the area with some 1980s-era houses, built on the lots that were cleared of the original houses for the highway construction. The odd kink in I-35W around Johnson/Stinson/Hennepin was engineered to support the I-335 intersection that was never built.
I'll admit I kind of enjoy walking around with these bits of local highway trivia.....but I'm also glad these were never completed.
posted by gimonca at 2:18 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
"I wouldn't think twice about calling the Tri-State "*the 294" if anybody actually called it that."
I would legit worry you were either having a stroke or were from California.
My Floridian spouse got mad that I knew how to get places faster than him, and I was like, "Don't you listen to the traffic report?" and he was like, "YOU MEAN THE THING WHERE PEOPLE INTERRUPT THE NEWS EVERY TEN MINUTES TO SHOUT NONSENSE WORDS AT ME????" and I was like ... "yes?"
Apparently you just need to know things like "the names of Chicago expressways" and "that the traffic report goes counterclockwise from North to South" and apparently this is hard to learn as an adult.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:34 PM on February 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
I would legit worry you were either having a stroke or were from California.
My Floridian spouse got mad that I knew how to get places faster than him, and I was like, "Don't you listen to the traffic report?" and he was like, "YOU MEAN THE THING WHERE PEOPLE INTERRUPT THE NEWS EVERY TEN MINUTES TO SHOUT NONSENSE WORDS AT ME????" and I was like ... "yes?"
Apparently you just need to know things like "the names of Chicago expressways" and "that the traffic report goes counterclockwise from North to South" and apparently this is hard to learn as an adult.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:34 PM on February 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
I have learned in my years on earth that most people know one or two ways from place to place and that's the path they take, even when it's less convenient than an alternate route. I think for most it's not that they literally can't find another way, it's just that they won't think about it unless the road is literally closed.
Apparently not everybody has a map in their head that they can use to roughly calculate many different routes from place to place. Granted, sometimes the alternative way ends up taking longer than I expected, but I've always gotten there in the end even when I've decided to take the road less (or in a few cases, seemingly never in the past 20 years) traveled.
posted by wierdo at 8:47 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Apparently not everybody has a map in their head that they can use to roughly calculate many different routes from place to place. Granted, sometimes the alternative way ends up taking longer than I expected, but I've always gotten there in the end even when I've decided to take the road less (or in a few cases, seemingly never in the past 20 years) traveled.
posted by wierdo at 8:47 PM on February 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Years ago I saw a sitcom set in Buffalo, and one of the characters says something about "The 90" and I just thought Jeez, these California writers... nobody in Buffalo would say that.
Later, I ran into someone from Buffalo (or maybe it was here on the Blue...) so I told that story, and they said, 'Oh no, I heard it all the time there.'
posted by MtDewd at 4:49 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
Later, I ran into someone from Buffalo (or maybe it was here on the Blue...) so I told that story, and they said, 'Oh no, I heard it all the time there.'
posted by MtDewd at 4:49 PM on February 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
despite growing up in suburban Philadelphia, I still do not actually know what "the Blue Route" is
my assumption is that it is akin to calling MacBeth "the Scottish Play"
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:20 PM on February 20, 2022
my assumption is that it is akin to calling MacBeth "the Scottish Play"
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:20 PM on February 20, 2022
despite growing up in suburban Philadelphia, I still do not actually know what "the Blue Route" isWhen the planners first drew the maps, the route was the blue line. That's all.
I-476 has a funny history. It starts with a 4, but is not a beltway. Additionally, it ends at 95 and not 76. Back before 476, the PA Turnpike's Northeast Extension was State Route 9. It was two lanes in each direction up until the Lehigh Tunnel. There, it dropped down to a two-lane highway. The state built another tunnel in order to make it so the entire road doesn't have to shut down if there is an accident in 1991.
In 1995, the US removed the 55 mph national speed limit. This applied to interstates but not state routes, so Route 9 became I-476 and the speed limit was raised to 65.
posted by metl_lord at 1:34 PM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
oh yeah, if memory serves, the speed limit on 476 initially changed from 55 to 65 at the exit I lived nearest, so it would actually be different if we drove toward Allentown or toward Philadelphia
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:53 PM on February 21, 2022
posted by DoctorFedora at 9:53 PM on February 21, 2022
I had completely forgotten that the national speed law was changed from 55 to 65 before it was finally repealed.
posted by wierdo at 10:02 PM on February 21, 2022
posted by wierdo at 10:02 PM on February 21, 2022
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posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:11 PM on February 17, 2022 [12 favorites]